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Subjects here can and do vary from the meaningful to the esoteric to the mundane to even the absolute inane. Whichever is your forte' whether diving in deep or doing a surface crawl...Thou art welcome here

20 November, 2013

Ram Leela : Shakespeare raped somewhere in Gujarat

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s (SLB) film Ram
Leela has us going to the absolute first principles of the cinematic experience
and questioning it. What is Cinema ?

Silk in the Dirty Picture defines it by saying Cinema is only three words “Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment”. Well
SLB’s movie was not that...so we go to the next definition

Cinema should be meaningful: In this
definition a feature film would have a certain story, a rhythm a flow in the
dialogues or timelines.... Well SLB’s movie was not that either...so we go on to the
next one

Cinema is about Realism: Like the
art films of the 70’s .... SLB’s movie was also not that at all by a far
stretch...so again we are pushed to the next definition

Cinema is/should/can be Artistic : Garish
explosions of colour in various shades of Red, totally fantastic sets which even
a showman like Raj Kapoor only put in a dream sequence make a part of everyday
ethos...no its Arabian Nights meet Japanese advertising meet Kathiawad... good
art does carry with it a coherence which is absent here ...SLB’s movie is not
Art either are there any more categories whose definitions are left ?

Documentary Cinema, Short Film, Meaningful
cinema, Good cinema, Bad cinema, Average cinema, which one exactly is this, I asked myself and then it became apparent,
truly apparent.

This is "the revenge of the nerd". SLB is taking revenge on films, film making and film folk by taking their money and packaging it just so that it seems
outwardly like a motion picture but instead is a mindless soul destroying experience. His greater crime, dragging William Shakespeare into this muck. Now William Shakespeare is
the one author who has been most favoured by filmmakers, playwrights across the
world for a story inspiration. His writing has been interpreted
sometimes ordinarily, sometimes tolerably and sometimes superbly but it has
always been his work. SLB in Ram Leela rapes Shakespeare himself. Coming out of the theatre, I was completely numbed...could see Billy the Bard otherwise
a benign fellow who smiles in black and white from his frock collared
photograph looking reproachfully at me...with hurt eyes, his self destroyed...why
did he (SLB) do this to me? Have I ever done anything bad to this fellow? I had no answer to give this impressive
author.

SLB says this movie is his interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. It sketchily
creates that skeleton and then bends it, finally crushing it. Romeo Juliet by Shakespeare one line synopsis is 'a romantic
tale of two star crossed lovers from opposing factions who die'. SLB’s sets are a
confluence of the remnants of the Kendall Shakespeare company’s set pieces, all the stuff in Philip Antiques-Colaba, crowded into one frame thrown in with a peacock who is also killed in a bizarre invite. Shades are pastel when its romantic and red when guns, bullets and ghagras fly most of the other time. Houses in this mythical town can’t have roofs because for 500 years
people have drawn out handmade guns and automatic weapons and fired in the air
wherever they are standing or at each other. Millions of bullets fly and only 5
people get hit and die, just so you also know that bullets kill, else you would
have gone out and wanted a gun for yourself. People here fire
bullets randomly, make obscene pelvic thrusts, break into a song , fire more bullets, Ram
and Leela are into each others mouths, we have extreme close ups of the lead
actors till we see the pores on their noses, their waists, shadows on chiseled bodies in unspoken places, more songs & just quite as suddenly a few more bullets later the movie mercifully
ends.

So we have a Ram’eo and Leela’iet in
Ranveer and Deepika who valiantly try and make this motion picture watchable
for whatever it is worth, they certainly exude a raw sex appeal but it is not enough. The other star cast has
Supriya Pathak, Gulshan Devaiyaah, Abhimanyu Singh, Richa Chaddha and small screen actors
led by Sharad Kelkar & Barkha Bisht. Few film old actors & the TV stars may have been thrilled in the beginning at having a big budget film on their CV’s during its making, but how many would
own it now is a question that begs answering. Individually, every single actor has done her job, it is the skipper who has screwed up big time. Music again by SLB himself (is there no end to this guy's megalomania, he inserts himself into almost every department for credit be it story, scripting , dialogues etc ) is a revisit
to his earlier Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam but that had an accomplished composer at
its helm in Ismail Darbar. Choreography is impressive if seen on TV, one song at a time but together it is a tad repetitive like the music.

As a conclusion I would recommend that SLB gets serious help , he has to visit a psychiatrist, or in the best
case be institutionalized and not be let loose near a camera ever again. He is angry with
films and film folks else a person in his right mind would never make this and
have the audacity to call it cinema.

Alternately if he has to make films they
should come with a sovereign money back guarantee; as a minimum protection of the pockets of paying customers. We can't do much for the trauma they are subjected to by watching his work except only warn them. Instead of a disclaimer the film should have a statutory warning like they have on cigarette packs.

This is
a fan of cinema and a paying consumers frustration at seeing pretenders getting big budgets to play around with, to splurge
and to lay it waste. While on the other hand many real filmmakers with good ideas, stories struggle to
find finance and marketing or even a platform where they can contribute to the pantheon of Good Indian Cinema. Do not waste your money here folks. Eat Bhelpuri or if you want the
promised experience or better yet go eat a Gujarati Thali at Thacker Club - Girgaum, Mumbai or a Rajdhani-several branches in Mumbai, that will most certainly be immensely more fulfilling.

3 comments:

Gluttons for punishment!! This is what happens when one is lured into packaging .... all gloss and Gloss alone.... Yes, SLB can try and get into a clinic to treat himself. I seriously doubt he will find a doctor who cares to treat him...

About Me

I love the theatrical play of life as it unfolds act by act. The unending suspense, the adventure, the exhilaration,the anticipation and the being on your toes, to switch sides between being an actor to audience to actor again n again
Yes there are goals and they may even change during the course of the journey so why miss the fun of the moment till then?
Aeyy Zindagi...
Pehle se likkhaa..Kuch bhi nahin
Roz naya kuch...likkhti ho tum..
Jo bhi likkhaa hai..Dil se jiyaa hai..
Yeh Lamhaa..Filhaal ..Jee lene de..
I am greedy for life and its experience and believe in living up the moment. Did not find better words than Gulzars that could capture the essence of my philosophy...
Enjoy the company of smart people with a definite sense of humour.